AREA OF PARACHUTES

Name of the student: Diya Sudhakaran

Name of the teacher: Shaila

Class / Grade of the student: 11

Name of the school: Chinmaya Vidyalaya Taliparamba

Adress of the school:

1. INTRODUCTION

I am very intrigued by the concept of flight and other things that have to do with falling from

or reaching high altitudes. So, when I came across the topic of parachutes and how their

surface areas affect their time of descent, I decided to do my research on the topic.

2. RESEARCH QUESTION

The aim of this investigation is, to find how the surface area of a parachute affects its time

taken for descent.

The concept is that the larger the surface area of the parachute, the more the air resistance and

the slower the parachute will drop.

3. BACKGROUND THEORY

Air resistance

When a parachute is released, the weight pulls down on the strings, and the parachute’s

surface area creates air resistance. A larger parachute has a greater air resistance, which slows

it down, so it takes longer to reach the ground than a smaller parachute.

safely from various heights.

4. METHOD

Parachutes of different surface areas are thrown from the same height and with the same

weight attached to it in order to derive the relation between the surface area of the parachute

and the time taken for it to descend.

The time of descent of the parachute is approximately proportional to the parachute and

inversely proportional to the weight attached to it, i.e., the more the mass of the weight, the

less time it takes for the parachute to descend.

Area /Total Mass = Time taken for the parachute to descend

Where, Total Mass= mass of parachute + mass of object attached to it

5. VARIABLES

Independent Variables- x

Area of the parachute is the independent variable in this case which will be changed

throughout the experiment according to the person doing the experiment.

Dependent variables- y

Time of descent is the dependent as it changes as we change the surface area of the parachute.
 6. MATERIALS REQUIRED

Plastic sheet, scissors, ruler, string, a fixed weight, tape, stop watch.

7. DIAGRAM

The parachute is
made with plastic
and strings are
Plastic parachute-
attached using tape.
At the end the
strings are tied or
attached together to
String-
an object

Attached weight-
 8. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE / METHOD

 Four circles with radii 9cm, 10cm, 11cm and 12cm are cut out from a piece of plastic.

 8 pieces of thread are attached to each of the circles using tape.

 The ends of the threads are tied together.

 These parachutes are dropped by keeping the height from which they are dropped

from and the weights attached to them constant.

 Each parachute is dropped 2-3 times and the time taken for each of them to reach the

ground is noted.

 The average time taken for each parachute to reach the ground is calculated.

 The observations are noted and then a table and graph are drawn.

 The relation between the surface area of the parachute and the time taken for its

descent is analaysed.

9. DATA COLLECTION

RADIUS AREA TIME 1 TIME 2 TIME 3 AVG. TIME

(cm) (s) (s) (s) (s) (seconds)

9cm 253.34 2.2 2.64 2.5 2.45

10cm 314 2.7 3.6 2.85 3.05

11cm 379.94 3.68 3.93 3.42 3.68

12cm 452.96 4.07 4.52 4.5 4.36

Chart Title
5
4.5
T
4
I
M 3.5
E 3
(s) 2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
TIME 1 TIME 2 TIME 3 AVG TIME

9cm 10cm 11cm 12cm

RADIUS(cm)

To confirm the relation,

Area /Total Mass = Time taken for the parachute to descend

Area / Time = Total mass

If the relation is true the mass of the object should be approximately the same in each case as

only the mass of the parachute changes and by a negligible amount.

253.34 / 2.45 = 103.4

314 / 3.05 =102.95

379.94 / 3.68 =103.24

452.96 / 4.36 =103.89

As the obtained results are approximately the same, we can confirm that as the surface area of

the parachute increases, its time of descent also increases.

12. SOURCES OF ERROR

While conducting the experiment these are some of the sources of error that I had noticed

 If the experiment is done outside, various sources such as the wind could interfere

with the experiment.

 It is desired to do the experiment multiple times and choose the closest most similar

and reoccurring values as the results may differ vastly.

 Faulty equipment. Such as holes in the plastic or tangling of the strings.

 The direction in which the parachute flows is uncertain and causes it to hit various

objects which affect the time taken.